Open Collections

Beck, Scott Matthew

University of British Columbia

Background: Primary caregivers of people living-dying with colorectal cancer (PLWCRC) assume complex roles and responsibilities across a broad range of physical, emotional, social, and financial domains; yet, many primary caregivers experience suboptimal support from the cancer care system. This contributes to an array of caregiving-associated health and social toxicities across trajectory of colorectal cancer (CRC) caregiving, for which gender is a covariate. However, the implications of primary caregivers’ gendered experiences for (1) oncology nursing praxis and (2) the cancer care system remain underexplored. Methods: This applied qualitative study was guided by the analytic direction of interpretive description and principles of gender-based analysis plus (GBA+). I analyzed interview data from 12 participants (6 primary caregivers and 6 PLWCRC) who were interviewed either as individuals (n = 10) or as a primary caregiver-PLWCRC dyad (n = 2). Results: The gendered experiences of primary caregivers are complex and intersectonal and are shaped by (1) hegemonic gender and the division of caregiving labour, (2) the gendered embodiment of health and social toxicities, and (3) institutionalized gender across the trajectory of CRC caregiving. Discussion: As a result of hegemonic gender roles and relations and institutionalized gender in the cancer care system, primary caregivers of different genders experience CRC caregiving differently. Oncology nurses and other cancer care system actors must take these gendered experiences seriously to provide equitable support to primary caregivers of all gender identities, roles, and relations, and in turn, provide better support to PLWCRC.

Text

2023-05-01

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/84539

Public Health / Nursing

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/